Scarlett wrapped her arms around Rhett's neck holding him close. He held her tight one arm around her waist, the other cupping the back of her neck. He had her in his arms again and nothing would ever take her from him again.
"God damn it Scarlett, you'll never believe..." Price Albert came to a halt in the doorway leading from the shared study to Scarlett's suite of rooms.
"Bertie," Scarlett pushed herself away from Rhett a rosy blush began to infuse her cheeks.
"I wasn't aware you were entertaining," Bertie bowed from the waist, "My most humble apologies."
Scarlett moved forward to catch his arm. "Bertie, please."
Albert winked at her quickly. She caught it and nodded slightly. "Really," he bent forward and kissed her gently on the forehead, "It will keep till morning."
With that he nodded to Rhett. "Mr.?"
Rhett just as formally replied "Butler, your highness."
"Do you hunt Mr. Butler?"
"Not for some time your highness."
"Join us tomorrow then, Scarlett can show you to the stables, she'll find you a...mount. Again good evening both of you." Bertie turned and without another word left them both closing the door softly but firmly behind him.
"Please Rhett, perhaps you should just go." Scarlett looked at the door regretfully.
Rhett caught her by the upper arm and pulled Scarlett towards him, forcing her to face him. "I will not just go. If I ask you a simple question will you, for once in our misbegotten lives together give me an answer that rings of the truth."
"I don't feel like answering any questions, not tonight..."
"You will, for the love of God what is it that you are to him? Are you his mistress, his friend, his employee? Will you answer me?"
Scarlett wrenched her arm from his grip. "Why should I answer that, for you of all people. Why don't you answer my questions for a change, how is your beloved little wife? How many perfect Charleston brats do you have? Why are you here to confuse everything?" She didn't wait for an answer; instead she made strides across the room towards the drape alcove containing her bed.
He was behind her before she could move more than a few steps. He turned her to face him, before she could protest he covered her mouth with his. He was swift and forceful, his tongue probing the interior of her wet, hot mouth.
Scarlett acted without thinking entwining her arms around his neck, meeting his desire with the full passion of the longing she'd felt for him over the last 18 months.
His right hand was wrapped around her waist holding her tight against his growing arousal, his large left hand cupping her buttock, searing her flesh with it's heat.
"Come to my room," Rhett whispered as he moved his lips down the smooth length of her neck.
Scarlett moaned as he nipped her on the exposed rise of her left breast. "No, here, it's fine..."Her whispered assent ended in a small groan as his lips fastened on her nipple.
"Your Prince?" Rhett mocked softly as he stood to face her. He still held her but he wanted her to agree, to voice her consent fully so that later...later she could not claim that she was an unwilling participant.
"Bertie is several rooms away from here and I am my own person, I'll give myself where and to whom I choose."
Rhett decided to push her no further; instead he swept her up into his arms and brought her into the dimly lit bed alcove.
He laid her on the bed before lying down beside her. Lying face to face for the first time in nearly two years would be daunting to more timid souls than Scarlett and Rhett. Instead, the two former lovers studied the changes that time had wrought. Scarlett gently stretched out her hand to trace the grey hair that colored much more of his temples than when they'd last lay together.
Rhett laughed gently as he caught her inquisitive hand within the grasp of his own. "I'm getting old."
Scarlett laughed "Hardly."
"Yet you on the other hand, you haven't changed a whit since the first time I saw you at Twelve Oaks."
Scarlett's expression grew serious "Don't say that, I know I've changed."
Rhett's expression grew solemn to match Scarlett's "You have, haven't you?"
Scarlett moved closer till her body pressed against his, "I suppose that will remain to be seen."
Rhett smiled "I suppose so."
The bedroom was faintly lit by the last embers of the fire that Scarlett's maid had laid earlier that evening...a lifetime ago in Scarlett's opinion.
They lay in her bed face to face for the first time in years. True they had made love several times that night on the beach after the storm, but previous to that they hadn't shared a bed since shortly after Bonnie had been born.
"Are you sure Scarlett, sure that this is..."
Scarlett leaned forward and kissed Rhett wrapping her arms around his neck as he rolled on top of her. Their clothes having been discarded in a hasty fashion when they'd made their way to her bed. Scarlett had thought that in a natural progression nudity would lead to lovemaking, but instead they had simply lain in her monstrously large bed talking and laughing softly.
But now...
Rhett met her kisses with his own, heavy with a passion that threatened to overwhelm his firm control. The control that he'd always held over himself when it came to Scarlett was dissolving into pure heat.
He wanted her, wanted her as badly as he had that first night in New Orleans. He could still remember watching her take off her wrapper as she had gotten into his bed. He had bought her with his ill-gotten gains and he was determined to keep her no matter what.
But he hadn't been strong enough to face the emotions she'd triggered in him while living together as man and wife. He told himself that he didn't need her, that it had all been for Bonnie. But now being with her like this once more he knew that it had all been lies. The passing years hadn't diminished the need he felt for her, in fact it felt as though it had intensified.
She was under him, willing and she wanted him. Her body betrayed her emotions and he would use them to claim her, for once and for always.
His mouth slowly trailed from her lips to the base of her throat where her pulse beat hard and steady against his tracing tongue. She moaned again and again as the growing sensations threatened to overtake her. Her moans vibrated in her throat and his tongue felt those as well. He continued down till his insistent mouth fastened onto her right nipple. Scarlett thrashed beneath him as his teeth grazed that sensitive nub of flesh tipping her breast. Her elegant long fingered hands twined in his thick black hair, holding his head tight against her breast. Scarlett's cries grew louder and louder filling the bedroom.
"Please, Rhett, please, now, now," Scarlett cried, her legs wrapping around his waist as Rhett.
Rhett's deep laughter welled up in his chest as he kissed her once again.
"Do you want me," Rhett asked whispering against her ear.
"Yes," moaned Scarlett as her arms wrapped around his neck bring his lips even closer to her ear. His whispered words making her squire and shudder beneath him.
"Tell me how much," he whispered.
Scarlett had dreamed of this moment again and again for far to long to allow Rhett his little ego stroke, so being a woman of action she took some now.
Her left hand traced down his back, her fingernails grazing him just on the threshold between pain and pleasure. Once her hand reached his waist she traced lazy circles before she moved it between them catching his member in her hand. Rhett's breath caught in his throat as she rubbed the pad of her thumb in slow circles against its head mimicking the earlier circles on his back.
He braced himself on the flats of his palms watching the rose flush that colored Scarlett's face as she felt his cock firmly pressing against the flat of her palm.
Scarlett laughed at the glisten of sweat that beaded on his forehead as he tried to once again regain control of their lovemaking.
"How much do I want you, why don't you show me how much you want me?" she challenged smugly.
That was the final break between Rhett and control. He drove himself into her slick, tight passage. Scarlett cried out in a voice that was tight with ecstasy at his invasion. She'd known no other man since the day that she'd pledged herself to him in front of the justice of the peace. She'd longed for him, hated him, dreamed of him, and now like a dream come to erotic reality here he finally was.